MOSCOW — An icon held sacred by Pope John Paul II has been returned to Russia as a gesture of good will intended to help bridge the long-standing divide between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches.

The ornate relic, an 18th-century copy of the Mother of God of Kazan, was delivered to Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, following a liturgy Aug. 28 in Assumption Cathedral on the grounds of the Kremlin.

The icon was placed on a pedestal to the right of the altar in the legendary gray limestone church, where Patriarch Alexei marked the feast of the Dormition of Mary, the Byzantine equivalent of Mary's assumption into heaven.

“This sacred image traveled a long and difficult path across many countries and cities of the world. Catholics and Christians of other confessions prayed before it,” the patriarch, wearing a blue robe embroidered with gold, told several hundred Orthodox faithful.

For more than a decade, the icon — which was spirited out of the country after the Bolshevik revolution — hung over the desk of the Pope. John Paul had hoped to deliver it personally, but Patriarch Alexei has resisted such a visit.

Instead, some 5,000 people gathered Aug. 25 in the Vatican's audience hall to see off the 12-inch-by-10-inch relic, which was delivered in a special wooden case, sealed with wax, by a Vatican delegation headed by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington also was part of the delegation.

Marian Unity

The patriarch said that the homage to Mary in both churches “reminds us of ancient times and undivided churches.” During the three-hour ceremony, he added that he hoped that the overture by the Pope “attests to the firm wish of the leadership of the Vatican to return to sincere relations of mutual respect between our churches — relations that would be devoid of hostile rivalry, but would fulfill the wishes to help each other in brotherhood.”

Since the early 1990s, Russian Orthodox leaders have accused the Vatican of proselytizing in Russia and failing to stop what they characterize as discrimination against Orthodoxy by Byzantine Catholics in western Ukraine. Both issues will need to be addressed before the first Slavic pope in history can set foot in the most important Slavic country in the world, said Father Vsevolod Chaplin, the Russian Orthodox spokesman.

Pope John Paul sent a message to Patriarch Alexei:

“Despite the division which sadly still persists between Christians, this sacred icon appears as a symbol of the unity of the followers of the only-begotten Son of God, the one to whom she herself leads us,” the message said in part.

Patriarch Alexei placed the return of the icon in the following context in an interview with Itar-Tass, a Russian news agency: “Over the past decade, we have observed the return to the motherland of many icons and church plates that were lost in the country during the years of repression against the Russian Orthodox Church, and this copy is one among them.

“Still, we hope that the matter isn't limited to the transfer of the icon, that this act will be followed by others, and that our relationship will improve,” the patriarch said.

Thanks

In a written message to Pope John Paul, Patriarch Alexei thanked him for the icon's return and called the gesture “a step in the right direction.”

“I believe that your decision to hand over the icon points to the sincere desire to overcome the difficulties existing in relations between our two churches,” the patriarch wrote the Pope.

A copy of an icon — what Latin Catholics would call a “sacramental” — while something less than the original, can also be an occasion for grace, depending on the disposition of the believer who venerates it, said Father Sergio Mercanzin, director of the Russian Ecumenical Center in Rome.

The Mother of God of Kazan is one of the most revered — and most copied — icons in Russian Orthodoxy. According to legend, when a fire almost completely destroyed the city of Kazan in 1579, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl and told her to dig in the ashes of her burned home; the girl found the icon, and it became one of the most revered Russian images of Mary. It has been credited with working many miracles, including the repulsion of an invasion by Poles in the 17th century, and was said to be cherished by Peter the Great.

The original — which, like the copies, shows the faces of Mary and an infant Jesus beneath a gilded silver cover inlaid with precious stones — vanished in 1904 from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan in what is now St. Petersburg.

To this day, the fate of the icon is disputed. Some believe it is being held in secret abroad, while others point to a police report indicating that it was burned by a thief in whose home were found valuable stones and, in the fireplace, the remains of an icon.

Patriarch Alexei said the icon from the Vatican will be housed in his private chapel.

“If a monastery were to be reconstructed on the site of the appearance of the miracle-working icon in Kazan — where now, unfortunately, sits a tobacco factory — then the (eventual) transfer of this icon to Kazan cannot be excluded,” he said.

As far as a papal visit to Russia, the patriarch said, “For now, that possibility does not present itself.”

Father Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of the Russian bishops' conference, told radio station Ekho Moskvy that he hoped the return of the icon would at least bring Catholics and Orthodox closer together.

Said Father Kovalevsky, “Regardless of all our differences, which, over the course of centuries, have aggravated tensions between our confessions, we nevertheless believe in the same God and the same Jesus Christ.”